News Stories

On June 5^th Staff filed proposed regulations and a correction to proposed regulations  was filed by Staff on June 10, 2026.  .

Note that the link to the cover letter outlines  all the non-consensus proposals.

Staff is proposing several changes including:

(1) Net Energy Metering and Time-of-Use (NEM and TOU): (i) including not-for-profit organizations or businesses, units of state and national government, and public senior higher education institutions as electric utility eligible customer-generators qualified to request meter aggregation; and (ii) adding a section to the community solar regulations for Time-Varying Rate Subscription Credits, including monthly carryover and annual payout of credits;

(2) Bonding Regulations: (i) requiring subscriber organizations to “verify that an agent or subscription coordinator acting on its behalf follows good cybersecurity practice established in COMAR 20.06.01.02B(12)”; (ii) requiring subscriber organizations to post financial security, in the form of a surety bond or irrevocable letter of credit, of $10,000 for the first MW of subscribed capacity and $25,000 for each additional MW; (iii) requiring subscription coordinators to provide a MDPSC with a certificate proving “a valid commercial cybersecurity liability insurance policy with a limit of at least $2,000,000 for each incident,” which must be continuously maintained, with the limit subject to adjustment by MDPSC with at least 180 days notice; (iv) requiring subscription coordinators to provide financial security, with five base security tiers if < 75% of “total served capacity is billed under net crediting” and five net crediting security tiers if = 75% is so billed; (v) including that MDPSC’s Office of Cybersecurity will “formally approve and issue the Cybersecurity Guidance Document,” and the requirement that a subscription coordinator self-certify and maintain compliance with the document to qualify for the tiered bonding amounts rather than the standard financial security that applies to subscription organizations; (vi) requiring individualized review for subscription coordinators serving more than 150MW in-state CSEGS capacity; and (vii) establishing 5-year inflation adjustments for the financial security amounts, beginning 12/31/30;

(3)Capacity Regulations: (i) expanding the requirement that a utility provide NEM to eligible customer-generators from “until the rated generating capacity of all eligible customer-generators in the State reaches [1,500MW] to the earlier of the date on which total generating capacity reaches 3,000MW or 7/1/27; (ii) requiring one of three alternatives for determining “how customer-generators initially qualify for standard net metering ahead of” the transition, either that, by 7/1/27, an eligible customer-generator have submitted an interconnection application to the utility, received permission to operate from the utility, or executed an interconnection agreement with the utility; and (iii) adding a section for Time-Varying Rate Subscription Credits, including monthly carryover and annual payout of credits;

(4) adding to Community Solar Definitions Regulations the definition of “Affiliate” as “a person that directly or indirectly, or through one or more intermediaries, controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with, or has, directly or indirectly, any economic interest in another person”;

(5) new Community Solar Local Government Participation Regulations, which separates such participation “into two processes and sets of requirements based on” whether the government is developing either up to or over 10MW per individual jurisdiction; 

(6) Low and Moderate Income (LMI) Regulations: (i) OPC proposes establishing “an annual certification process and corrective action plan requirements for LMI shortfalls, with potential Commission-ordered remedial measures and financial penalties for persistent non-compliance”; (ii) Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA) proposes to permit “subscriber organizations to allocate LMI shortfall credits to non-LMI subscribers, subject to making a payment to the Office of Home Energy Programs (OHEP) equal to [25%] of the monetary value of the credits received by non-LMI subscribers”; (iii) Potomac Edison proposes requiring “subscriber organizations to forfeit unfilled LMI shortfall credits at the close of the credit allocation period, with the electric company allocating… [their value] to its limited-income customer mechanism program”; (iv) consensus updates defining “Credit allocation period,” “LMI Shortfall,” and “Minimum LMI subscriber requirement”; and (v) consensus update requiring subscriber organizations to retain records of, for each utility billing period, “compliance or failure to comply with any applicable minimum LMI subscriber requirement” and “banked bill credits associated with an LMI shortfall and whether, by the end of the associated credits’ allocation periods, these banked credits are reallocated to LMI subscribers, reallocated to non-LMI subscribers, or else purchased by the” utility; (7) new Master Metering for Community Solar Regulations, restricted to residential master-metered facilities, including: (i) a master meter subscriber (MMS) “may not profit from the allocation of community solar credits to tenants,” though they may be compensated for associated costs by a subscription coordinator; (ii) requiring, where possible, allocation of credits on a pro-rata basis, either by submeter or, for facilities with Energy Allocation Systems, according to an existing approved allocation procedure; (iii) requiring that, where pro-rata allocation is not possible, the MMS submit a proposed Benefits Plan and use a method that MDPSC deems fair and reasonable; and (iv) prohibiting MMS or community solar providers from requiring “a security deposit or a credit check from a tenant subscriber as a condition of participation”;

(8) new Net Excess Generation Regulations, “Accrual of Net Excess Generation” and “Virtual Net Excess Generation Accrual,” with both: (i) allowing customer-generators to “elect to accrue net excess generation” either indefinitely or for “A period not to exceed 12 months, ending with the billing cycle that is complete immediately before the end of April of each year”; and (ii) providing that the “method for calculating the value of net excess generation held under an indefinite accrual election” to be determined by MDPSC; and

(9) Subscription Contract Assignment: (i) requiring subscriber organizations to provide customers with notice of enrollment, which must include evidence of insurance, a long-term maintenance plan, and “Current production projections and a description of the methodology used to develop production projections” and may include an affiliate assignment notice; (ii) requiring an affiliate-assignment notice to customers at least 12 days in advance of “assignment or transfer of a subscription contract from a subscriber organization to an affiliate subscriber organization” from the notice of non-affiliate requirement; and (iii) prohibiting subscriber organizations from assigning “LMI subscriber if, as a result of the assignment, the community solar energy generating system that LMI subscriber was previously enrolled with will no longer satisfy an applicable low-income or moderate income subscription requirement.”